The Intercessor Must Understand Spiritual Laws

"So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, AND STAND IN THE GAP BEFORE ME on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one." Ezekiel 22:30 What is standing in the gap? It's the definition of an intercessor. Just as God has put laws into nature, for example if you throw a ball into the air it will come back down, the law of gravity - likewise there are laws in the spiritual realm. We are born into a fallen world, to fallen parents, into a fallen society, and each and every human being is fallen, each human being is a sinner by nature, and Satan has the rights over each sinner. Yes, Satan has rights. When Adam rebelled against the Word of God, he forfeited his authority over the earth and Satan became "the god of this world." "But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds THE GOD OF THIS WORLD has blinded..." 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4 Satan even boasted of his rights against Jesus himself: "Again, the devil took him (Jesus) up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these things I WILL GIVE YOU if you will fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:8-9 In this passage, note that Jesus did not dispute Satan's claim of ownership. We have to understand Satan's rights before we can successfully intercede for lost mankind. When an intercessor "stands in the gap," he stands between the sinner and God and pleads for him. Prayer is powerful. The intercessor pleads in prayer that the sinner be brought to salvation because prayer is the most powerful tool on behalf of a sinner and can change the course of that person's life. When a sinner is brought to the born-again experience, he is transferred out of Satan's kingdom and into the Kingdom of God. What do we plead in prayer? We confess the sinfulness of the sinner, acknowledging the justice of the judgments upon him. Those judgments are laws in the spiritual realm and we don't deny that, we confess that. And then we ask that the Holy Spirit REVEAL (a key word) to the person the gravity of his sin, and that he be brought to repentance. We pray that God reveal his salvation to the sinner and that he be brought to surrender himself and his life to Jesus Christ; we pray that he be born again and brought into eternal life, which will take him out of Satan's kingdom and bring him into the Kingdom of God. We plead the POWER OF JESUS'S VICTORY over Satan in the life of this sinner, which victory was accomplished at the Cross. That's what standing in the gap is. It's the acknowledgement of the gravity of sin and the righteous judgment as a spiritual law working in that person's life, and then standing in the gap between that sinner and God, praying that God reveal to him his sin, bring him to repentance and into eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Just as Satan has the rights to the person, Jesus takes those rights when a man surrenders his life to Christ. And for that to happen, the intercessor toils in prayer for that man because: "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16